SAN MARCOS, Texas – Junior Tre'Larenz Nottingham scored a career-high 27 points, 20 of which came in the second half, and the Texas State men's basketball team nearly came back from 11 down in less than a minute. However, Georgia Southern escaped with an 81-77 win in Strahan Coliseum Saturday afternoon.
 
The Bobcats drop to 14-16 on the season and 7-10 in the Sun Belt Conference while the Eagles are now 18-11 overall and 9-6 in conference play.
 
Nottingham converted a free throw attempt but missed his second that was grabbed by a GS player. After a quick foul, the Eagles' Ike Smith missed the frontend of a one-and-one that saw Alex Peacock grab the rebound. Nottingham received the pass, drove down the court and pulled up for a three-pointer following a screen from Immanuel King to cut the deficit to 75-68 with 38 seconds remaining.


 
Another missed frontend of a one-and-one resulted in a layup for King on the other end of the court with 25 ticks left on the clock and the deficit down to five.
 
Larry Hughes recorded a 1-for-2 trip at the line to increase GS' lead to 76-70. Nottingham then drove the ball down the court and banked in a triple to cut the disadvantage in half.
 
Again the Eagles went 1-of-2 at the charity stripe following a TXST foul. Nottingham raced down the court, split two defenders and was able to get a layup to drop to make it 79-77 in favor of the visitors with just over six seconds remaining.
 
Hughes converted two free throws to seal the game despite a last ditch attempt for Nottingham from beyond the arc that was just off the mark and Hughes nearly hitting the Moreno Valley, California native in the back of the head with his hand while attempting to distract Nottingham on the shot attempt.
 
Down 24-20 with 7:39 left in the first half, three-pointer from Isaiah Gurley sparked a 15-4 run for the Bobcats over the next 3:30. Capping off the scoring stretch with a triple was Nijal Pearson.
 
Following six straight Eagle points, Nottingham converted a free throw for the last point of the opening stanza for either team as TXST took a 36-34 lead into halftime.
 
Nottingham finished the day 9-of-15 from the field with a 7-for-12 performance from beyond the arc. He is the first Bobcat to make seven treys in a game since Reid Koenen did so against South Alabama on Feb. 20, 2014. The junior guard also finished with six rebounds and four assists.
 
Netting 15 points was Pearson behind three triples. The sophomore grabbed a game-high seven rebounds, handed out four assists and blocked a shot.
 
King also reached double-digits with 10 points after making 4-of-5 shots and was 2-for-3 at the free throw line.
 
Terry finished with seven points and blocked a shot. Tyler Blount, Gurley and Peacock all contributed six points apiece. Peacock finished with six boards and Blount set a new career-high with five rebounds.
 
As a team, the Bobcats shot 28-of-54 (51.9%) and were 12-of-29 (41.4%) on long distance attempts. The 12 made three-pointers are the most in a game since Jan. 12, 2013 against UTA. TXST also outrebounded GS 33-25 with an 8-3 advantage on the boards that led to 13 second chance points for the Bobcats to only two for the Eagles.
 
Next up for TXST is the regular season finale on Friday, Mar. 2 against in-state rival UTA that will be televised on ESPN2. It will also be senior night and the team will recognize Deris Duncan, Blount and King for their contributions to the program.
 
For the latest on Texas State men's basketball, visit the official website of Texas State athletics at www.txstatebobcats.com, follow the team on Instagram and Twitter at @TxStateMBB and like on Facebook at /TexasStateMensBasketball.